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The Most American Car in America Isn’t American

It seems the old days of American-made cars consisting only of Ford, Chevy, and Chrysler have faded into the past faster than this season’s Red Sox victories.

Today’s “most American” cars come from foreign car companies, which makes things difficult for the people who like to buy American and who still believe American cars come only from the traditional Big 3 automakers.

Our friends over at Boston.com have a story about the “most American” cars, and three out of seven of them are from Honda or Toyota, with the number-one car being the Toyota Camry. Number two is the Toyota Sienna, and number four is the Honda Odyssey.

The American-made cars are determined by three factors: the percentage of the vehicle’s parts that were built in the United States or Canada, the final assembly point, and overall vehicle sales.

Interestingly, last year’s “most American” vehicle was the Ford F-150, which completely fell off the list with its 2015 redesign. That means less than 75 percent of its components are now sourced from North America.

Do you know what this means? It means the country of origin on a car just doesn’t matter anymore. The car industry is truly global now, and buyers are as likely to get American parts on a Ford as they are on a Honda.

Today we have a situation that was unthinkable just 15 years ago. Italians own an American car company, and we have Japanese and German companies building cars in the U.S. while employing thousands of Americans.

Anyone determined to get a car that was designed and built in the United States strictly with American-made parts will have a harder time than ever and will probably need to enter a dealership to shop for cars once considered foreign.